The spot paints Heiner as a change candidate, playing on the fact that there hasn’t been a Republican mayor of Louisville since the late 1960s. There has, however, been a Republican Judge Executive since then. Rebecca Jackson was the last Judge Executive before merger, and the last to have real power in government.

Other former Democratic candidates David Tandy and Jim King, and independent Jackie Green have endorsed Democratic candidate for mayor Greg Fischer.

Fischer defeated the two Metro Councilmen in the Democratic Primary in May. Fischer finished with 45 percent of the vote, behind him were Tandy and King, each with about 20%.

Shannon White, who won about 2% of the Democratic Primary vote, endorsed Republican candidate Hal Heiner last week.

A spokesperson for the Heiner campaign criticized Fischer for welcoming endorsements from two Metro Council members after calling Heiner, also a councilman, an insider.

The four other Democrats who ran in the primary have not offered public endorsements of either candidate.

In addition to Fischer and Heiner, independents Jackie Green, Nimbus Couzin and Jonathan Mills will also appear on the November ballot.

Here is the Fischer campaign statement:

Saying that Louisville needs a mayor who can unite the city, create jobs and put people back to work, Metro Councilmembers David Tandy and Jim King today endorsed Greg Fischer for Mayor.

“Greg is the leader our city desperately needs,” said King, a Democrat who represents the 10th district. “He is the true job creator in the race – and he has the business experience to immediately step into the mayor’s office and lead our city towards growth and prosperity.”

“Greg will be a mayor for all of Louisville, from downtown to the suburbs, from the east to the west and the south,” said Tandy, who represents the 4th district. “He will put our neighborhoods first and will build a efficient government that is open, honest and accountable to the people.”

Tandy and King were primary opponents of Fischer – and, among the three, they garnered 85 percent of the votes. Tandy and King said they, along with other Democrats, are united in their support for Fischer’s fresh vision and leadership for Louisville.

Fischer said he was honored to have their endorsement.

“David, Jim and I share a common belief that Louisville can be a better place – a place where our children and grandchildren can find good-paying jobs and raise their families,” Fischer said.

And the response from Heiner’s campaign spokesperson, Joe Burgan:

While spending the summer bashing Hal for serving on the Metro Council, Greg Fischer runs to the arms of two democratic council members who have served the city just like Hal. I guess this proves that Greg believes experience like Hal’s matters when running for mayor.

Yesterday, Hal Heiner won the Republican nomination for mayor with just over 33 thousand votes. His two opponents received a total of about 16 thousand votes.

Greg Fischer won just over 37 thousand votes to win his party’s nomination, but the seven other Democrats earned a combined 45 thousand votes.

Heiner won his primary with a higher percentage of total votes than Fischer won his. The Ville Voice speculates on what this might mean for Heiner’s chance at the mayor’s office, but it’s worth noting that while the Republicans may look more unified heading into November, Fischer took nearly half the vote in a more crowded primary. He also won more votes than his two closest competitors and he won more votes than Heiner. It’s unclear what Fischer will need to do, if anything, to encourage voters who supported David Tandy, Jim King or Tyler Allen to support him. King’s campaign manager says King will support Fischer, but Tandy isn’t making any endorsements yet.

Fischer beat two Metro Councilmen in the primary, and he says he doesn’t think the title is necessarily a vote-getter for candidates. Do you think that’s the case? Did you vote for someone other than Greg Fischer in the Democratic primary? Was the vote for your candidate or against Fischer?

In a recent conversation with Tandy, I asked if he really was on the crane above Louisville, and he said yes, he was. He worked with the crane’s operators and was standing on the edge of the machine’s arm about twelve stories up. The camera was on a nearby building. He added that he couldn’t spend campaign cash on faking the shot.

Tandy is one of eight Democrats seeking the mayor’s office. Three Republicans and at least three independent candidates are also running.

A Bluegrass Poll commissioned by the Courier-Journal and WHAS11 shows the number of undecided voters in the Republican and Democratic primaries shrinking by about half. Benefiting from the drop are Democrat Greg Fischer and Republican Hal Heiner. Fischer now holds 42 percent of the vote among Democrats, marking an 11 point increase from a similar poll released last month. Behind Fischer is Metro Councilman Jim King, who gained eight points and holds 21 percent of the vote. King has overtaken fellow Councilman David Tandy, who dropped to third with 13 percent of the vote. He previously polled at 16 percent.

In the Republican primary, Chris Thieneman remained in second place with 25 percent, but Councilman Hal Heiner strengthened his lead. He now polls at 63 percent, up from 42 percent last month.

Mr. Fischer, a successful businessman, makes a credible case that he is the candidate best suited to deal with the tight budgets and the need to stress job creation in the coming years.

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Moreover, after some initial confusion about his position, Mr. Fischer has unequivocally endorsed the record of decision on the Ohio River Bridges Project, which calls for simultaneously proceeding on construction of two bridges — one in the eastern part of the county, one downtown — and on a reconfiguration of Spaghetti Junction.

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Ideally, Mr. Fischer would have experience in elective office or public administration. He has neither. But his skill in organizing a campaign, financing it, gaining support from a wide range of individuals and organizations, and drawing up a comprehensive platform reflects qualities that would be well-suited to the top job in City Hall.

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Mr. Fischer’s principal opponents appear to be Metro Council members David Tandy and Jim King.

Mr. Tandy, like Mr. Fischer, has provided voters with a detailed and progressive platform, and his personal style is open and engaging. His campaign, however, has been disappointing. Visibility has been low, and he has not raised money to have a presence on television. It’s unfortunate that such issues become important, but a political reality is that there is often a genuine relationship between ability to run an effective campaign and readiness to perform in high office.

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Mr. King, a successful banker and accountant, has praiseworthy organizational skills, grasp of issues and knowledge of city government. In most circumstances, we would expect him to be a top candidate for mayor. Unfortunately, however, he is burdened with a heavy load of personal and ethical baggage that, in our view, disqualifies him — at least this time around.

His experience in the private and public sectors, as well as his clarity of vision and expression, position him as the best candidate, and he should be the GOP voters’ choice on May 18. Mr. Robertson simply does not have the profile needed to be Mayor, and Mr. Thieneman simply does not possess the gravitas or the communication skills the office demands. Mr. Heiner more than makes up for their lacks in those important areas.

He promises to do the job with a “100 percent” commitment to open and transparent government. He also promises to make job creation his main focus, if elected.

He backs up his talking points with an array of specific suggestions and strategies too numerous to mention here.

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On other issues, Mr. Heiner opposed the library referendum but he says he is not happy with the progress that has occurred in the absence of the tax. He said he will move to implement a master plan, and voters should hold him to that promise if he is elected.

Voters should also know that he says he supports the record of decision in the Ohio River Bridges Project and supports the building of both bridges now.

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He says he is committed to a vibrant core city, not just the suburbs as some voters fear, because a strong core is necessary for attracting new business and jobs.

The Heiner endorsement has fewer digs at the other candidates, though that’s expected with such a crowded Democratic primary. The “This time around” comment about Jim King is worth noting, as are the references to the bridges project in both pieces. The ORBP never became a full-fledged campaign issue for all of the candidates, though with Tyler Allen set to air TV ads about it, it could bubble up again in the next week. Yesterday, in a piece on Tyler Allen, Bridges Coalition chair David Nicklies was quoted saying the next mayor “has to be with” the current bridges plan.

In the Fischer endorsement, the CJ notes his lack of political experience, though credits his campaign and business history as evidence of leadership abilities. The last two mayors of Louisville (Abramson, Armstrong) held previous government offices, and if one of the nominees for either party is not a Metro Councilman, then Louisville could have its first politically new (relatively) mayor in years. We’ve seen a few notable businessmen politicians on the national scene (Bloomberg, Romney) and Louisville certainly has a history of electing mayors who haven’t been in politics for very long, but it will be interesting to see what credentials voters favor in the primaries and general election. It’s also possible that experience won’t have anything to do with it and voters will go for the person and the plan, not the party or history.

In the e-mail, White criticizes Democratic candidates David Tandy and Jim King and Republican candidate Hal Heiner (all three are councilmembers) for their relationship to metro government, even though they weren’t cited for being behind anything in the audit. White specifically targets Tandy for his trip to Baltimore to meet with Cordish executives about a loan the city gave the company.

I am outraged over the current administration’s handling of taxpayers’ dollars. Let us NOT forget that the recent state audit found 69 problems areas with metro government mostly due to MAJOR accounting problems, including 23.5 MILLION dollars in question.

Ten of thousands of dollars were not accounted for in Metro Corrections, the city actually gave back thousands of dollars of federal grant money and lost cats and dogs that were in the care of Metro Animal Services.

I am disappointed over the latest ads from three of my opponents promising an “open and honest government” … promises that the city government will be held accountable.

It is all complete BULL- these current Metro Council members are part of the establishment and part of the problem. Hal Heiner, Jim King and David Tandy are the reason our local government is in the shape it’s in.

In addition, we should remember that Councilman Tandy continues to promise transparency when he went on a fact finding mission to investigate the Cordish deal that involved 900,000 dollars of tax money- your hard earned money.

And Tandy ended up signing a confidentiality agreement while promising transparency- he knows what happened to our tax dollars- but agreed with the big corporation to keep it silent.

David Tandy & Jim King both served as presidents of Metro Council.

Do you really want more of the same administration? If we elect a councilmember to keep doing the same things- Louisville will get the same results.

Democratic mayoral candidate David Tandy has long talked about improving the tourism industry in Louisville, and while no one has laid out how to pay for it, Tandy is among several candidates proposing light rail in Louisville. Tandy released this statement today, in response to the study:

As the only candidate in this race who has presented a vision for making the expansion of Louisville’s tourism industry a priority, I was pleased to see that the study conducted by Convention Sports & Leisure drew the same conclusions and proposed many of the same strategies. We must begin right now to invest in tourism in order to compete with cities across the country.

That is why I have proposed an aggressive marketing campaign to provide travelers from around the world with information about what Louisville has to offer and at the same time presented a comprehensive plan for downtown redevelopment which will make Louisville a more attractive destination for conventions and tourism.

Among Democrats, Jim King has said he also supports a stronger tourism industry and Burrell Farnsley has proposed 24-hour bar service as a way to attract and keep visitors and locals downtown.

Democratic mayoral candidate David Tandy has rejected an endorsement in the Democratic primary from Dr. Frank Simon’s controversial Freedom’s Heritage Forum. Tandy (who has been endorsed by the Fairness Campaign’s CFAIR) says the endorsement would go against his beliefs in equal rights and nondiscrimination.

From the Tandy campaign:

“My entire political career has been about bringing people together,” said Tandy. “I cannot accept the endorsement of any organization that works to exclude anyone from the political process. This entire campaign is about bringing every citizen of Louisville together to create better, more vibrant and more inclusive communities; a vision that organization does not share.”

Tandy noted that he made no effort to seek the support of the organization.

“My Christian values are extremely important to me,” said Tandy. “But my Christian values teach that every individual has a voice, that every person is entitled to equal rights and opportunities and that any organization which chooses to discriminate based on race, gender, nationality or sexual orientation has no place in my campaign.”